Chris Barnes

Chris Barnes

Chris Barnes (born December 29, 1967) is an American singer, best known as being a death metal vocalist and lyricist known for his very low guttural vocals and as the vocalist and lyricist (from 1988-1995) of death metal band Cannibal Corpse, for his subsequent work as part of Six Feet Under and featured in Finnish death metal band Torture Killer's second album Swarm!.

Career

Early career

"Chris Barnes had started his extreme metal career at the age of 19. Primarily Barnes's first band was a Death/Thrash band called Tirant Sin, which had formed in 1986 in Chris's hometown of Buffalo. Other members of Tirant Sin member included drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz, guitarists Bob Rusay, Cam V and Joe Morelli, and bassist Rich Ziegler. Also in 1986, Chris quit Tirant Sin to join yet another New York based Death/Thrash metal band named Leviathan who would record a four track demo entitled "Legions of the Undead" in 1987. This demo would one day be available on the 2005 Six Feet Under boxed set entitled A Decade in the Grave.

Tirant Sin recorded three demos. The first was entitled "Desecration of the Graves" and would privately be self released in February 1987. Tirant Sin's second demo entitled "Chaotic Destruction" would be self released in the fall of 1987, Dennis John on vocals. And finally Tirant Sin's third demo entitled "Mutant Supremacy" would be self released in 1988. Barnes only appeared on the 3rd demo, when he rejoined Tirant Sin in January 1988.

1988-1995: Cannibal Corpse

Barnes wrote all of the lyrics on the albums Butchered at Birth through The Bleeding, and wrote the lyrics on Eaten Back to Life with the rest of the band helping. When asked in an interview what his favorite Cannibal Corpse album that he worked on was, he commented "I love them all, I really do. I really enjoyed them all". In the same interview when he was asked about his time with the band, he responded "I look back on it with a lot of fond memories. It was pretty much my starting point - it wasn't exactly my starting point, but it was as a professional musician. I think that I really helped bring about a certain style of music, and with that band I really outlined what most people think death metal vocals sound like - I'm part of that. I'm really proud of the imagery, and the lyrical stories that I put together on all those albums. We set out to conquer the world though, and I think we did as far as our corner of the world was concerned."

Barnes was fired from Cannibal Corpse because of his personal differences with the rest of the band members. Barnes was then able to devote his full attention to the band Six Feet Under, which had been his side project since 1992. Barnes has commented that he is "very proud of what I've done with them."

"Being booted out of Cannibal Corpse was pretty memorable but in a good way. I didn't feel I was able to write the way I wanted to so it was a good transition for me."

There have been some rumors about Barnes returning to Cannibal Corpse, which were denied by Alex Webster: "We have no plans to do anything with Chris Barnes ever again. It's not something any of us are interested in doing."

1995-present: Six Feet Under

In 2005, Six Feet Under released 13, their 6th full length album, an album that Chris also produced.

In the same year Six Feet Under released A Decade in the Grave, a box set highlighting the past 10 years of Six Feet Under.

With the success of two death metal bands already under his belt (Cannibal Corpse and Six Feet Under), Chris Barnes joined the Finnish death metal band Torture Killer in the fall of 2005. At the time, Barnes said he was fully committed to the band, and appeared on the band's second album Swarm!, which was released on February 24, 2006. However, he left the band in January 2008.

Six Feet Under released the album Commandment on April 17, 2007 to highly positive views. Chris Barnes has stated "Commandment" is his favorite album, claiming to have received over 5,000 messages in support, many fans cite it as their favorite Six Feet Under release since 2003's Bringer of Blood.

In November 11, 2008 Six Feet Under released their newest album Death Rituals. It saw the band returning to Morrisound studios in Tampa, FL with Chris Carroll at the helm with mixing duties being handled by Toby Wright (Slayer, Korn, In Flames, Fear Factory, etc…) and the return old friend Bill Metoyer, who recorded the bands CD Warpath, helping out with recording of the drums. The album includes 13 songs such as the Mötley Crüe cover Bastard and an ambient song entitled Crossroads To Armageddon.

In January 16th, 2009, a message appeared to Six Feet Under's website:

Just wanted to let all of our fans know that we are currently in the studio working on Graveyard Classics 3. We are about 60% finished with tracking. Everything is going great and we are havin a lot of fun laying these new songs down. more info and track listing to come!!

Vocal style

Barnes is known for his rather extreme vocal style, which consists of low and snarled death grunts that have been described by as "thunderous" and "like Satan on a diet of razor blades and paint thinner". He has also been praised for the fact that his famous grunts have never been manipulated or enhanced by a recording studio. Some have speculated that Barnes can get such low vocals because he is a known marijuana smoker, although this has never been confirmed or denied by Barnes. He also seems skilled at raspy screams, exemplified in the songs "Hammer Smashed Face", "I Cum Blood", "Post Mortal Ejaculation", "Pulverized", and "Stripped, Raped and Strangled". Ironically, in interviews he is known for having a very soft voice and for being very mellow.

Chris's vocals on "Tomb of The Mutilated" were so inhumanly guttural, that inside the booklet of the album there is a message that states "Electronic Harmonizer was not used to create any vocals on Tomb of the Mutilated".

External links

• Six Feet Under's official website
• Cannibal Corpse's official website